Ranch Work

    The sunlight plays against the clouds in the sky. It's a beautiful day today, the temperature not to hot nor to cold. The Breeze just right. At the ranch several Landers and other types walk around the property.

One such individual could be easily seen carrying bags on his shoulders. That individual happens to be Xander Scaleharth. Once he gets over to a few of the food trouths, he opens up the bag of grain for the feed, and then whistles the large feathered birds over to get their feast.

After that he starts to make his way over to get some water in order to refill the water troughs next.

What is odd about the tank however is that he isn't wearing his normal gear. Sure there is a sword at his hip, but he is wearing some leather pants, a half untied tunic, pair of fingerless gloves, and a pair of calf high boots.

Goldenblade is wearing the same thing she usually wears, though chain mail really doesn't get stinky or anything if you wear it every day. As for the gambeson and other under-the-armor stuff, well, she can change that up and who'll even know? She comes out into the barnyard, looking around, but apparently not seeing what she came to find. She calls out to Xander, "Hello! Have you seen Rylen?"

Goldenblade takes in what Xander is doing with a puzzled expression, and says with amusement, "I didn't realize they'd put you to work here?"

    Xander peers over at Goldenblade and gives her a gentle smile. Then he chuckles lightly, "Well, given I stay here to sleep and eat. Thus more room than the Scale HQ and more open space to sword swing..." The Salamander shrugs, "Gotta pay for my way by some kind of work. May as well be upkeep."

When Goldenblade asks that about where Rylen is the Salamander doesn't reply right away, instead he gets the buckets of water. Then fills the water troughs, as he does that though, he gives her his answer. "Not here." He says simply.

    Once down, he goes to place the buckets away as he continues to explain. "That is apparently something strange going on," beat pause, "I don't know," Then continues, "So he went into town to investigate."

Xander then leans up against the fence line, his arms rest back against it, with one boot kicked over the other. "My other part of upkeep. Keeping an eye on this place while he is away. Is there a message you like for me to pass along, Goldenblade?"

Goldenblade nods thoughtfully about Rylen not being there. "Just wanted to talk to him about an idea I had. It's no secret," unlike whatever strange thing is going on. "I was planning on setting up a training academy, where players could train each other in whatever skills they've unuiquely worked out. But other training, like Peko-riding, would fit in with the whole 19th century military academy vibe I've got in my head, so I wanted to talk to him about working together on it. Landers don't really have a lot of advanced education, either, that I can tell, and a lot of the Lander kingdoms don't share information readily."

She nods about keeping an eye on the place, and wonders, "Can you say what's going on that's strange, or is that a secret?" She observes, "So much goes on in this game goes on that I don't understand that it's hard for me to tell what's normal and what's remarkable."

    "Not sure." Xander says to her, "He didn't get into details with me and I didn't press to ask either." He chuckles, though be it a touch nervously, "I think he may have been just a /touch/ annoyed with me that I didn't take part in the tower fight."

The Salamander frowns a little. "Would have, but had some rotten nights leading up. As you know in combat, including one as important as those, it is /not/ wise to go into battle with your head not in the game."

He continues to lean there as he tilts his head a little. "But I'll pass it along to Rylen regarding you wanting to work with him." His tail flicks gently. "I'm sure if he is interested, he'll get back to you on it."

Goldenblade winces about the Tower Boss not being something done when you're not on top of your game. "That's a fact," she agrees. "This one was the hardest, and even people who's heads -were- in the game had problems." She takes a breath, admits, "I almost got one-shotted by a surprise effect. Someone shoved me out of the way and took the hit for me, and ... I feel bad, I couldn't remember the guy's name. I came to see him in the church where he'd rez, and I finally remembered his name." She shakes her head, "Short story, it was kind of a hard fight. But we won. I got pretty lucky, personally."

Xander raises a brow, "Someone went down? What was their name?" The Salamander asks, as he goes to stand back up fully on their own two feet. "Have they already respawned? I know its far longer than it use to be.."

Goldenblade uuuuhhhhhhs, "So, that's part of what's weird. I dunno, I'd just talked to the guy that day, and I couldn't remember the guy's name, Jim Bo, until I got to the church to meet him. He took a shot for me, I had to thank him. He respawned, yeah, but I had a mental block til I got into the church. We lost like 5 or 7 people, I think," she says with a sigh. "Most of them against the surprise spawn, but a couple on the boss."

    Xander brows furrow, his head lowers a little. Goldenblade could see his jaw tense, moving a little to the side. His thick scaled tail was not moving, as his fiery gold draconic eyes looked toward the ground.

There was dead silence beyond the breeze and the sound of the Pekos. About then, Xander closed his eyes gently, taking a deep inhale. "... I see." He says softly. He opens his eyes once more looking at Goldeblade, his tone much more serious. "Do you remember any of their names?"

His arms crossed over his chest, but his index claw was gently pushing against his own arm. Not enough to break the skin, but it was easy to see that Xander was slowly growing tense. "Has anyone heard from them yet on respawn?"

Goldenblade blinks, ohs, nods, as she sees what's being asked. "It seems like everyone's respawned," she replies quickly. "You might know Mizuki? She was having a rough time of it also. I heard a few people met her when she respawned, but it was just the people that died to the ... well, the thing that appeared had like a semi-glitched-out name. Like White Whale, but with the characters all weird. The guy I forgot was killed by that one. Don't let him know I forgot, I feel bad enough about it. After he saved me and all."

    Xander listens and brows knit a bit more. "Mizuki." He says simply. "Yeah, she is in the other guild of the Alliance." He goes to lower his arms and tsks gently. There was a hidden anger there on his face.

"Thank you for letting me know, though I do admit," He laughs, though it was not a joyful one. "Getting really tired of finding out shit second-hand."

He looks over to Goldenblade dead on. "Anything else I can let Rylen know? I need to go wash up here."

Goldenblade nods slowly. "I didn't know her too well, myself, but she seemed like a good person." She can onlt shrug about finding things out second hand. "Better than not finding out?" she suggests. But she shakes her head about more messages for Rylen. "Thar's all I have. I dunno how you feel about training and learning techniques. It was important back at my job, and I spent a lot of time helping out the new kids when they came to work for us, so I was thinking something like that here would be good. Not sure how it'll go, though."

    Xander goes to step away and looks back at Rylen. "I'd be to tough on people if I was to train 'em. Already helping a few newbies, but if I went on a full educational training," He laughs; It wasn't a friendly one. "Oh boy. They would run."

He then goes to walk away before looking over to Goldenblade. "Let's just say. I doubt you want someone to drill sargent your people into the ground and into tears."

Goldenblade laughs, admits, "Tough love is a thing. /I/ won't complain. Kids today cry about it, but you have to be like that or the important lessons don't stick. For every one you break in boot camp and send home or to the rear echelon, that's one that won't break when lives are on the line." Of course sometimes they're sent to the front line anyhow, but at least they know. "It's different here, I guess. I was too young for the war, but my friends had older brothers that went, so I heard a lot when they came home about what it was like."

    Xander sighs as Goldenblade seems to want to continue the conversation. He rubs his forehead gently. "Army. Vet." The Salamander says simply, "I am an Army Vet." He looks back over to her, "Most folks play video games to pretend to be in a war scenario or play soldier. I was a soldier."

The Salamander shakes his head gently, "People here have low self esteem, they can barely follow orders, and let alone none of them have tactical insight or how to correctly handle an organization."

    He motions over toward the tower way in the distance, "/Hell/ my own alliance can not even do a simple AAR. I know I'm not the king of reports, but command should be willing to do debriefings and keep everyone, no matter how far out they are, on the same page."

Xander shakes his head gently, followed by a long, frustrated exhale. "Not your problem however. Anyways, like I said, I need to get cleaned up. I'll let Rylen know what you said and I'm sure he'll contact you once he gets a chance."

Goldenblade ohs as you explain about being an army vet, nods gravely as you complain about people not following orders. She's got a bit of trouble in that department, herself, obviously, but she tries, and doesn't take being corrected personally at least. She smirks about the After Action Reports, she's done enough situational briefings to know the importance of communication, at least. "Those are the kind of things I'd like to train," she says, but nods about you taking off and getting cleaned up. "Sorry to hold you up, thanks for your time," she says quickly before letting you go.

    Xander gives a faint nod, "I understand that, but I may be not be what you're looking for. I got a chip in my shoulder a mile wide and issues," He taps his head gently, "You wouldn't even want to know." With that though, the Salamander gives Goldenblade a gentle wave, then starts to make his way toward the actual house. "Take care of your Goldenblade and best of luck!"